NEW DELHI: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today ruled out any cut in the excise duty on petrol and diesel for now, saying the government still had to pay for the oil bonds raised by the UPA government.
“The UPA government reduced fuel prices by issuing oil bonds worth Rs 1.44 lakh crore. I can’t go by the trickery played by them. Due to oil bonds, the burden has come on our government, that’s why we are unable to reduce prices of petrol and diesel,” the minister told mediapersons during an informal interaction.
Regretting that the Modi government did not issue a White Paper on the subject when it came to power in 2014, Sitharaman said, “The exchequer is burdened by interest payment on oil bonds floated by the UPA government. The present government has paid over Rs 70,000 crore in interest on oil bonds over the last five years.”
The UPA government issued bonds to state-owned oil companies to make up for the difference in the artificially depressed retail prices of fuel and the actual imported cost. At that time, the oil price was over $100 per barrel in the international market.
“If I didn’t have the burden to service those oil bonds, I would have been in a position to reduce excise duty on fuel,” she maintained.
The minister said while the income tax portal was still not perfect, it was better than what it was. She was hopeful that the bugs in the new income tax portal would be sorted out over the next few days.
“I have been reminding Infosys constantly… and Nandan Nilekani has been messaging me with assurances that it will be sorted out,” she said.